Berhampur: Police have arrested six persons, who had allegedly looted Rs 25.30 lakh in cash from the employees of Gorapalli toll plaza near Haridamula Square, some 70 kilometres from here, at gun point on July 2.

The police have also recovered Rs 10.15 lakh of the stolen booty, 13 mobile phones, one pistol and 3 live ammunition from them.

"The arrested criminals are Sanjib Mallick alias George of Satya Nagar in Bhubaneswar, Prasant Kumar Sethi alias Nanda of Nirmaljhar at Khallikote in Ganjam, Subash Behera alias Chamera of Jagatpur in Cuttack, K. Ramesh Das alias Rao of Puri, Jogendra Behera alias Kukuda of Bolagada in Khurda and Ghanta Srinivas of Visakhapatnam. Another two to three criminals are involved in this crime and steps have been taken to arrest them at the earliest," said superintendent of police in Ganjam Brijesh Kumar Roy.

Two employees of the toll plaza - including Saibaba Palem and Debanshu Singh - were on their way to deposit the cash in a private bank, some seven kilometres away from the toll plaza on a car driven by Arif Khan when the goons intercepted their vehicle coming on two bikes.

They stopped their vehicle at gun-point and fled from the spot with the booty at 12.30PM on July 2.

Palem said that the miscreants had asked him to hand over the bag containing Rs 25.30 lakh. When he refused and offered resistance, the goons pointed the gun at them us and fired in the air to terrorise them.

"They snatched the bag and two mobile phones from us and went away," Palem had said. Khallikote police swung into action getting the complaint from Palem. The looted booty amounting Rs 10.15 lakh recovered from these six criminals separately.

The police initially recovered Rs 2,05,000 in cash, one 9-mm pistol with three rounds of live ammunition, two mobile handsets including one stolen phone that belonged to the complainant, one new mobile phone worth Rs 22,000 purchased from the looted money, and a new laptop worth Rs 28,000 purchased from the looted money from Sanjib Mallick.

Another Rs 20 thousand in cash, one mobile phone and one scooter was recovered from Prasant Kumar Sethi.

Another Rs 2.70 lakh in cash, a motorcycle used in the crime, one sprint bicycle purchased with the looted money, one sports utility vehicle, one mobile phone worth Rs 22 thousand purchased with the looted money and three other mobile phones were recovered from Subash Behera.